I just found this thread and have been having the same issue. I have a 300 oz freezer stash that I need to dispose of :cry . I have been defrosting it one bag at a time and so far none of the bags are "good". I have two months till I have to go back to work and my job isn't "pump friendly". So I am going to start over and it is very upsetting.

I scalded a small batch today on the stove and then froze. I will defrost tomorrow to see if it is good. I hope so then I can start over.

My plan was to pump as much as I can now and freeze the excess and then use when I go back to work in November.

Question: Will scalded milk store as long as all the tables mention? 3-6 months in a deep freezer (which we bought thinking the fridge freezer was the problem).

Thanks so much for all of the info in this thread - it provided me with a wealth of information. Glad to find out while there still is a chance for me to start over.

August 23rd, 2007, 07:05 PM

@llli*jjgj.28

Re: Scalding breastmilk due to excessive Lipase

I just wanted to add my experience from today. I defrosted ebm in the fridge overnight. And it smelled soapy and tasted terrible. So I was just a little upset :cry . But I try again this time quick thawing it in hot water and it smells and tasted fine! So now I am happy. I think I may have seen someone mention this on this thread. I don't quite understand why this would happen but I wanted to mention this, maybe it can help someone else.

August 23rd, 2007, 07:54 PM

@llli*tippee

Re: Scalding breastmilk due to excessive Lipase

Just curious...I have not yet tried to give DS thawed BM. How do you know if you have this problem? Only if they won't take it????? :shrug

September 4th, 2007, 10:10 PM

@llli*lunaticlibrarian

Re: Scalding breastmilk due to excessive Lipase

If your LO won't take it is one way, but the best way is for you to do a simple taste test. Take some fresh pumped milk and compare it with something pumped earlier that day, the day before, etc.

It's pretty obvious if you have the problem. I thawed out some milk and seriously about vomited after I tasted it, my son threw a FIT, so I figured something was wrong with the milk and there sure was. Luckily it isn't a really common 'problem' so you'll probably be okay. Frozen breastmilk is slightly different, but unedible is a whole other scenario and pretty easy to tell from taste and smell.

September 5th, 2007, 11:46 AM

mrsavocet

Re: Scalding breastmilk due to excessive Lipase

NY Mom,
I don't know if there is an "official" answer to this, but I've been scalding my expressed breastmilk for nearly 4 years now, and I've found that it keeps in the freezer just fine. My husband gave my son some that was nearly 6 months old when I was at work last week and there were no complaints anyhow!

I really feel for you, having to throw so much away. You must be heartbroken.
This was one of the reasons I gave up pumping for my first child - I really struggled to pump and what I got she wouldn't drink because it tasted bad, so I quit. Nobody I spoke to had any idea of the cause. I only discovered the reason when i had my second child, and scalding completely solved the problem. It's a shame that such a common problem isn't well publicised, before mums like us fill our freezers isn't it?

September 8th, 2007, 08:42 PM

greenveggie

Re: Scalding breastmilk due to excessive Lipase

If my estimates are right, I'm going to be throwing out about 150 ounces. Including about 8 ounces of colostrum from when I started pumping to suplement when she had jaundice. I have a business trip in about a month, and I won't be able to make back enough stash by then even if I started tomorrow. I'm so gonna cry.

September 8th, 2007, 09:11 PM

@llli*lunaticlibrarian

Re: Scalding breastmilk due to excessive Lipase

It will be okay, do the best you can. I also wouldn't toss your stash yet! Since you know you will be traveling obviously start pumping and scalding as much as you can now.

Here's what I would do:
1. Don't toss your unscalded stash yet
2. Pump, scald, store as much as you can
3. Have whomever will be watching your LO mix scalded with unscalded (from your current stash) for your LO for each feeding
4. Have whomever will be watching you LO also work backwards through your unscalded stash, that is take the most current milk then work back
5. If you have a deep freezer, or access to one, I would transfer atleast all your unscalded milk to that freezer ASAP and crank it to it's lowest setting (The lower the temp, the slower the lipase activity)

You can't unthaw, then scald, then refreeze; however, if it was me I would unthaw, scald, then use within 24 hours. That will at least stop it from that point on. If you had your caregiver thaw it, then scald it, they have up to 24 hours to use that milk and it wouldn't be any worse than it was when first thawed. It can be heated at least twice and used for a feeding (see links below for reference).

When I pull from my stash, I unthaw my milk the night before and make the bottles for the next day. In my case they all have to be prepared for daycare, I commonly mix my milk from Friday's pumping with something from the stash. Who will be home with your LO, can you leave awesome instructions for your partner?

For daycare, I have to have the bottles made for them, so he can put it in the fridge the night before and put the slushy milk in the bottles before he takes her. We're working on getting a deep freeze. Have to make some room first. He can also mix whatever fresh before I go with frozen, which should help with that. My other option is that if I just am not going to have enough, to have daycare do forumla. We really don't want to, but given how much time I have, its a possibility I want to prepare for so that I have as much control over the situation as possible.
I can leave instructions, so thats easy. I'll just want to have everything pretty well laid out. And for what he feeds her, he can thaw it right before feeding, which helps.
I really doubt anything in my stash is good, it may also have ended up too close to one of the walls, and we had a power outage. It was only a few hours, but who knows. I'll hang on to it for now.
She's 5 months this week, and she's really been oogling our food, so I'm going to start solids soon. That should make it slightly better since maybe she won't need quite as much milk.
Thank you for your information. I don't know what I would have done if I had just gone on the trip and not known. I'm so glad I read stuff here.

September 9th, 2007, 04:33 PM

greenveggie

Re: Scalding breastmilk due to excessive Lipase

How do you cool the milk after scalding? Do you go right to bag to freeze? I have the bottle warmer and a thermometer, but I can't figure out how to cool it down to freeze?

September 9th, 2007, 09:21 PM

@llli*lsksam

Re: Scalding breastmilk due to excessive Lipase

Quote:

Originally Posted by greenveggie

How do you cool the milk after scalding? Do you go right to bag to freeze? I have the bottle warmer and a thermometer, but I can't figure out how to cool it down to freeze?

I put some ice & water in a cup and then put the milk storage bottle in this "ice bath" to cool. After it's cooled then I transfer to a storage bag & freeze.